1956 report reveals El Paso had champion milker in 1923

A june 28, 1959, photo caption said that a costly investment in modern machinery enabled the Borden Co. to convert milk into nutritious and low-cost ice cream novelties at its El Paso Plant. The machine shown here automatically assembles and packages ice cream sandwiches under the watchful eye of Mrs. Maria Gomez. The operation was typical of mechanization used throughout the plant.(Photo: El Paso Times)

On April 29, 1956, the El Paso Times reported that Price's Dairy's Pauline produced 16,444 pounds of milk in a 10-month period, a Texas record for 5-year-old Holsteins in 1923. The article also gave the history of a few local dairies:

At one time, El Paso could claim the champion milk producing cow in the Lone Star State.

She was "Pauline." During a 10-month test supervised by New Mexico A&M College, she produced 16,444.6 pounds of milk, containing 637.4 pounds of butter fat.

That was in 1923. Pauline, the pride of the Price's Dairy pasture, established a Texas record for 5-year-old Holsteins.

Industry experiences growth

That also was the year when the dairy industry in El Paso was first experiencing growing pains. Robert B. Price was then manager of Price's Dairy, which was begun in 1906 when Mrs. Mary S. Price bought one cow. With her four sons, she began what is today Price's Creameries Inc.

"Eventually, we had 10 cows of mixed breeding," Price recalls. "The best production we could get from the herd was 20 pounds per cow. In 1911, however, we began using our first purebred bull, a registered Holstein-Friesian.

"His daughters, almost without exception, produced more milk at first calving than did their dams as full-age cows. Since that date, we have used nothing but purebred sires, and these were the best we could obtain."

By 1923, production at Price's had increased to 37 pounds per day.

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A photo from June 25, 1950: "Wesean's Norbeau's Waldo, a young bull from the Western Consumers' Guernsey Dairy Herd, has been purchased for $600 by Price's El Paso Dairy and is here being held by Stanley Ridge, dairy manager. The bull will be used for artificial insemination of Price's and associated dairy herds."(Photo: El Paso Times file photo)

Production hiked

The Rio Grande Valley was making rapid strides in dairying. Production on farms had increased from 1,000 gallons per day in 1918 to approximately 5,000 gallons in 1923.

All of it was being sold as fluid milk in El Paso.

In 1918, the Price family had a distributing plant at 120 N. Piedras St. with a capacity of 10,000 quarts of bottled milk per day. In the plant were facilities for pasteurizing and sterilizing.

In 1933, the firm built its current home at 620 N. Piedras St.

Growth of El Paso's other dairies also has been steady and strong. One of the largest, Borden Co., has been operating in the El Paso area for 28 years. It began as a one-man operation. Today, the company employs 95 persons on an annual payroll of $300,000.

Seventeen farmers who produce all of the dairy's milk supply were paid $800,000 last year.

Some 125 families, it is estimated, derive their livelihood producing, processing or distributing dairy products for Borden, whose distribution area includes Southern New Mexico and as far east in Texas as Van Horn.

Good health was reflected in the name of this milk-selling organization, the "Life Saver Goat Dairy."(Photo: Times Blumenthal Photo Collection)

Two dairies merge

Two major dairies in El Paso merged two years ago. Farmers Dairies, owned and operated by the Luis Navar family, purchased Hawkins Diary from W.W. Hawkins. Farmers was found in in 1921 by Luis Navar and has grown to a 500 herd enterprise.

Other family members operate a Farmers Dairy in Guadalajara, Mexico. They are John and Tom Navar.

Hawkins Dairy was started by Mrs. Lena W. Hawkins in 1901. Only 10 years old at the time, the late W.W. Hawkins, her son, worked around the diary as a boy and became head of the firm in 1917.

He held this position until his death Nov. 18, 1953. Hawkins also was sheriff of El Paso County, in 1941, having been appointed to the post to fill the unexpired term of Chris P. Fox. Hawkins had been an El Paso County commissioner at the time of his appointment as sheriff.

After Hawkins' death, his sister, Mrs. Jack Hill, became president of the firm.

Fewer but larger producers

In 1956, dairying is a $9.6 million industry here, a 20 percent increase since 1954.

Production of dairy products increased 15 percent in 1955, in comparison to 10 percent increases in 1954 and 1953.

General trend in diary-farming has been to fewer but larger and more economical producers. Sixty producers before World War II had dropped to only 44 in 1954, though the number was up again to 57 in 1955, largely because of low cotton acreage allotments.

Sales of dairy products totaled approximately $18 million in 1955. Some 880 persons are employed by the local dairies with a pay roll of approximately $3,212,000 annually.

Trish Long is the El Paso Times' librarian. She may be reached at 546-6179 or tlong@elpasotimes.com.